C. Boyden Gray, who served in the Reagan and Bush (41) administrations, took apart Democrats' arguments for every single page of Brett Kavanaugh's records in two simple ways.

By NTK Staff | 08.01.2018 @11:00am

Most Senate Democrats have refused to meet with Judge Brett Kavanaugh until officials turn over every page of his records from his time in the Bush (43) White House – even though meetings with a Supreme Court nominee were once a common, simple courtesy.

Well, a former White House counsel – who served in the Reagan and Bush (41) administrations – is taking apart Democrats’ stalling tactic, in a new op-ed published in The Hill on Wednesday.

C. Boyden Gray’s argument is two-fold: 1) agreeing to the Democrats’ demands for Kavanaugh’s records as staff secretary “would involve an unprecedented waiver of executive privilege” on sensitive information, and 2) the documents wouldn’t offer any perspective on how Kavanaugh will judge the law as a Supreme Court justice.

On the first note, here’s what Gray had to say:

Yielding to the Democrats’ demands would involve an unprecedented waiver of executive privilege. Because unlike other White House personnel who serve a more peripheral role in the president’s administration of the executive branch, the staff secretary manages every paper that comes across the president’s desk — not just the ones he ultimately signs, but also draft orders, letters, memoranda, and other documents that never see the light of day. Subjecting all of these deliberative documents to public scrutiny would chill communications between future presidents and their staff, which could be disastrous for the country.

And on the second:

The Democrats’ request is also ludicrous, because the documents in question would reveal nothing about Judge Kavanaugh’s legal views or judicial aptitude. The staff secretary is not a decision making official. His job was not to advocate his own views on law or policy, but to manage the stream of documents through the Oval Office, and to see that the president’s own communications are thoroughly vetted by the relevant White House personnel.

Pro-Kavanaugh forces recently gained an important ally on the documents front: Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who’s considered a swing vote on Kavanaugh. She has indicated the roughly one million pages of documents regarding Kavanaugh’s judicial record already made available to senators is sufficient for her to come to a determination on his candidacy.

Democrats will continue to try to stall, but Gray, as someone who worked inside the White House for more than a dozen years, presents a strong argument against Democrats’ wide-ranging demands.